20 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I am not sure if I will be able to chat today, so I am going to ask my question now. Will Stanford get in? Just a day ago it didnt look like, but now it seems as though experts like Lunardi are back to having Stanford in. Whats the reasoning for this?

It's very mysterious that Stanford went from the sixth team out to in for Lunardi. I don't know what he saw in them to jump them over 6 teams and into the bracket unless he knows something. They are definetly no worse then last four out on our list and will be considered for one of the last berths. They did struggle down the finish but all their losses were to tournament teams, unlike Air Force who lost to bad teams. I'm not saying Lunardi knows something and Stanford fan should get excited but I would like to hear his explanation. Stanford also got hurt this week by Texas Tech and Virginia falling out of the top 50 RPI. If the committee looks at all their quality wins (which is an impressive list) and is not bothered by their poor finish and mediocre RPI you have to like their chances.

Right now, of those 10, we like West Virginia, Florida State, Air Force, and Missouri State the least. Nothing is set in stone, though, and we'll spend the rest of the day crunching the numbers and weighing strengths and weaknesses.

So for weeks you over-seeded UVA (I should have registered so all my comments werent' anonymous), and now you dropped them all the way to a #6, lower than Virginia Tech and 2 lines lower than a team they swept (Maryland)? I'm not saying you will be wrong (I remember what happened to Georgetown last year, dropping from a #5 on most pre-brackets to getting a #7 from the committee), but it would be better if the bracketologists would rate teams where they should be so more people hold the committee accountable for seeding. The committee has long been horrific in seeding teams (remember Louisville as a #4 two years ago when they waltzed to the Elite 8 and beat WVU to make the Final Four) and more people need to hold them accountable. UVA should be a #5.

I can't imagine the committee considering last years snubs (FSU) into their considerations for this year..that certainly wouldn't be fair to other teams that also deserve to be in.. being an FSU fan, I'd love to see them get in, but they lost their chance in the ACC tourney.

How does Arkansas not even get consideration from you? Some sites have them in already. They won 5 in a row in conference play. Beat Miss St. and Vandy twice and came close to Texas and Florida in the regular season. Also a win against S. Illinois in non-conference play. Their RPI is higher than most of your bubble teams at #35. Just wondering.

Nice blog. I agree with the previous comment that MD won't get a 4. They had a strong finish, but that upset did not help their case. My two teams are MD and Florida, so I will be watching close to the brackets.

natty??.....why do you hate md so much??......losing one game should not overshadow an amazing finish with a 7 game win streak to finish off the toughest conference in the country. Being 3-6 and all the reason in the world to quit on the season, they pulled off an amazing run which included a sweep of Duke, a win over UNC, a sweep of N.C. State to finish 10-6, Miami is just a team that MD struggles against which I agree is a bad loss....but 24-8 record with quality OOC wins and a great finish to the regular season is enough to put them in the pod system....gary will have this senior led team ready for next week, especially after their embarassing loss to the Hurricanes........don't overlook the terps based on one game

i think it's funny because 2 weeks ago i said Oregon would be a 3 seed and everyone said i was an idiot. you gotta ride the bad waves out if you think a team is good.

i have a new system this year for doing my brackets. Pay no attention to seedings, rank the teams before the brackets are announced and fill in according to those rankings, here's my list:1. Kansas 2. UCLA3. Ohio St4. Florida5. Wisconsin6. Pittsburgh7. Washington St8. Memphis9. UNC10. Texas11. Oregon12. Oklahoma State13. Air Force14. USC15. Nevada16. Vanderbilt17. Marquette18. Stanford19. Duke20. S Illinois21. Maryland22. Texas A&M23. Indiana24. Kansas St25. Boston College26. Arkansas27. Louisville28. Georgetown29. WVU31. VCU32. Kentucky33. UNLV34. Creighton35. Notre Dame36. Syracuse37. Virginia38. UNLV39. Texas Tech40. Davidson If you want to see explanations of why, i wrote them all out on my blog which you can find by clicking on my name.

(1) RE: Stanford. Didn't Lunardi pull similar shenanigans last year when he had GMason several spots out on Sunday morning but then somehow elevated them over another team who didn't play on Sunday by the time the pairings came out? (Mo St. maybe, I don't remember the exact team but I remember the situation was bogus because neither team played that day). Today, he's got Stanford elevated over ODU even though neither has played a game since he had ODU over Stanford. Interested to see if Stanford gets in over ODU this time. If so, then maybe it's time to think that ESPN/Lunardi gets a phone call from a fly on the wall so it/he is not embarassed.

(2) Also for Bracketology 101, please don't take credit for 62 out of 65 because 31 are automatics. That's like saying I picked 3 games correctly on Thursday when OSU, Wisc, and Indiana all defeated "Bye".

(3) Also, why does Vitale keep saying Florida State is one of the best 65 teams when asked if they should be in? Makes no sense, the question must be whether they are one of the 34 best non-auto qualifiers. He's been at that job how long??

FSU will make it in. No bad losses. Half of their losses came with their starting point guard injured. He came back and they pasted Maryland and NC State then beat a hungry and determined Miami on the road who had just beaten UVA. They beat CU and lost to the ACC Tourney Champ. RPI #38 and a win over UF and Duke on the road. Had a couple of heart breaking losses where the other team threw up a prayer at the buzzer. I think it is enough. They are definitely one of the top 65 teams in the country.

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